How To Jailbreak iOS 9 – 9.1 On iPhone, iPad & iPod touch [Guide]

The iOS update cycle is complete. A few incremental iterations into the latest major iOS update from Apple, and a new jailbreak tool is released. iOS 9 can now attain complete software freedom thanks to the Pangu Chinese dev team and their latest jailbreak tool. If you’re itching to hop onto the jailbreak bandwagon, read on for an easy-to-follow, step-by-step tutorial to jailbreaking your iOS 9-toting iPhone, iPad or iPod touch. If you’re on the edge about the whole thing or are new to jailbreaking, we have a section at the bottom that might help you decide.

3. From under the “Backups” section, select Thiscomputer, uncheck “Encrypt iPhone backup”,and hit Back Up Now.

Note: Not disabling encrypted backups will cause the jailbreak tool to return an error (error 0A, to be specific).

Performing a Fresh Restore via iTunes

Update: A new version of the tool now allows jailbreaking iOS 9.1, but unless you weren’t already on said version, you won’t be able to perform a fresh restore to it since Apple has stopped signing iOS 9.1. If you’re already on iOS 9.1, you may back up your device and perform a factory reset (Settings > General > Reset > Erase All Content and Settings) before you begin the jailbreak procedure.

If you have a lot of data and apps on your device or installed an OTA (Over The Air) update on your iOS device, the jailbreak tool might return an error. You can, of course, always give it a go to find out, but if you’d rather not waste time going back and forth, or have already tried and failed, here’s what you need to do:

1. With your device connected to your computer, launch iTunes and select your device from the navigation bar at the top.

2. Click the Restore Device… button in the device info section to perform a fresh restore. This will wipe all data and install/reinstall the latest version of iOS on your device.

Alternatively, you can download the iOS 9.0.2 IPSW file for your device separately and install it by Shift-clicking the Restore Device… button and selecting the downloaded file.

3. Once your iDevice restarts, set it up as a new device for the duration of the jailbreak procedure. After the procedure is complete, we will be returning to iTunes to restore the backup you created earlier.

Jailbreak Procedure

Once your data is backed up and you’ve performed a fresh restore, you’re ready to jailbreak your device.

2. If you have Passcode Lock enabled on your device, navigate to Settings > Passcode > Turn Passcode Off to disable it.

3. Lastly, turn on Settings > Airplane Mode.

4. On your computer, launch the Pangu jailbreak tool you downloaded from the “Requirements” section.

5. Connect your device to your computer and wait a few seconds for the tool to detect it. If it doesn’t, make sure you have the latest version of iTunes installed.

6. Click the Start button, followed by Already backup on the screen that follows.

7. After a couple of minutes, the tool will reboot your device, asking you to unlock it and enable Airplane Mode once again.

8. A few more ticks later, the tool will ask you to unlock the device again and run the Pangu app added to your Home screen. Open the app, tap Accept followed by Ok on the prompt that asks for access to Photos.

9. Wait for the tool to complete jailbreaking your device. Once it is done, scroll to the last page of your Home screen to ensure Cydia has been installed. If you find it there, your device is now jailbroken.

10. If you performed a fresh restore on your device before the jailbreak, launch iTunes, select your device from the navigation bar at the top, click the Restore Backup… button under “Backups”, and select the backup you created earlier to get all your data back.

Video Tutorial

Update: This tutorial was created for older versions of the tool, but can be reapplied for the version that adds support for iOS 9.1.

Common Pangu 9 Jailbreak Errors & Their Fixes

Update: Note that with the tool having been updated multiple times, most of these issues are bound to have been resolved by now, but we’re going to let them be just in case.

Device Not Detected By Pangu 9

If the jailbreak tool fails to detect your device, download the latest version of iTunes and install/reinstall it, reconnect your device and launch the tool once again. If the issue persists, restart both PC & device and try again.

/usr/libexc/cydia/cydo error(2)

If the jailbreak tool returns this error, follow the steps in the “Perform a Fresh Restore” section above to restore your device, then try the jailbreak once again.

Error 0A

As mentioned earlier, the tool will return this error if encrypted backups are enabled in iTunes. To fix this issue, launch iTunes with your device connected to your computer and disable the “Encrypt iPhone backup” from under the “Backups” section.

Update: The Pangu Jailbreak tool has been updated with a fix for the 0A error and improved jailbreak success rate.

Jailbreak Fails At 90% When Pangu App Tries To Access Photos

If the process stalls at 90% after a quick flash of blue on your device, retry the jailbreak, but this time, open Photos once before you open the Pangu app.

Cydia App Doesn’t Appear After Jailbreak

Once again, retry the jailbreak, but this time, open Photos once before you open the Pangu app.

Cydia App Crashes After Jailbreak

Perform a factory wipe from Settings > General > Reset > Reset All Settings, perform a fresh restore following the steps outlined in the “Perform a Fresh Restore” section above, and jailbreak your device once again.

Runtime Error

If the tool is returning a Runtime error stating “This app has requested the Runtime to terminate it in an unusual way,” uninstall iTunes and its components following the instructions on this Apple support article to the letter, download the latest version of iTunes, reinstall it and try again.

Boot Loop of Death (BLoD)

If your device seems to reboot endlessly when you try to boot, you can try this makeshift fix till the Pangu team updates its tool with a fix.

1. Boot your device into No-Substrate Mode (disables all Cydia tweaks) by holding down both Home and power buttons until you see the Apple logo, then letting go and holding down the volume up button until you see the lock screen.

2. Once that is done, launch Cydia and install iCleaner Pro.

3. Launch iCleaner Pro, hit ‘+’ and select Cydia Substrate Addons.

4. Select All unselect all Cydia tweaks and apply without respringing.

5. Hard-reboot by holding down both home and power buttons.

6. After reboot, open iClearner Pro, re-select all your tweaks and respring.

List Of Cydia Tweaks Compatible with iOS 9 – 9.1

Update: Link to iOS 9.1 compatibility list added.

There is a crowd-sourced Google spreadsheet listing all the Cydia tweaks and apps that have been tested on iOS 9. The sheet will be updated to include more with time. You can check it out from the link provided below.

Should I Jailbreak?

Every jailbreak tool has sported a couple of bugs in its infancy, and we won’t be surprised if this one follows suit. Such tools and the exploits that they use are kept under embargo to ensure an official security patch isn’t rolled out before a respectably stable update. For that reason, it is natural for the initial release of such a tool to have a few issues that slipped past the developers.

Our advice would be to download the tool and wait a couple of days before jailbreaking, if only to make sure that no issues are found with the tool. Two to three days are mostly enough for any bugs to come out of hiding.

Update: The tool has had sufficient time to mature, with a new version adding support for iOS 9.1 and iPad Pro.

Apart from that, it is a matter of preference. To some, jailbreaking feels like foiling the “stock” feel of the device while others are more than happy to open their devices to a plethora of system-level tweaks from the Cydia jailbreak store. As has been the case with any jailbreak for a major update to iOS, there won’t be a lot of iOS 9-compatible Cydia tweaks and apps in the beginning – another reason to hold off on the jailbreak – though that is bound to change fast. There are already quite a few tweaks out there meant just for iOS 9, some that can clone features currently exclusive to the iPhone 6s and the latest-generation iPads – features like Split View as well as 3D Touch Quick Actions and peek & pop.

I’m New To Jailbreaking

If you’re new to the jailbreak concept, what you need to know is that it basically unchains your device’s software, opening it to a jailbreak-exclusive store of apps and system tweaks that can add tons of amazing new features to your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch such as themes, animated wallpapers, better multitasking, more feature-rich Notification Center widgets, and even certain completely new system features like Home & lock screen widgets as well as replicas of iOS 9 features only available to certain newer devices (like 3D Touch peek and pop for the iPhone 6s, Split View for newer iPads) among countless others.

It also prevents your device from updating OTA (Over The Air). In fact, if you want to retain jailbreak, you can’t update at all unless the jailbreak tool in question is updated to support newer versions of the OS, but that is a sacrifice that most jailbreak enthusiasts who understand the update cycle are willing to make. Every jailbreak is accomplished via a certain vulnerability in iOS that is bound to be plugged in an update rolled most likely to be rolled out by Apple shortly after the jailbreak tool is released. Updating to this new version, whenever it is available, will prevent you from jailbreaking your device until you downgrade to a previous iOS version or a new vulnerability is exploited to achieve jailbreak once again, and the latter can take quite some time. Apple also stops signing older versions of iOS shortly after an update is released, preventing downgrades to older builds.

So, are you going to jailbreak your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch? Let us know in the comments section below. Follow us on social media or subscribe to our RSS feed for more iOS and jailbreak-related updates.

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I'm an engineer, blogger, and graphic designer who loves creating and experimenting with different forms of online content when he's not looking for a mix of inspiration and escape in PC gaming, comic books and anime. You can find me on Twitter and Google+.